Health Care Rights Health Care Rights Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990): Do family members of an incompetent patient have a right to terminate life sustaining treatment for the patient? Vacco v. Quill (1997): If a patient has a right to refuse food and life sustaining medical treatment, do they also have a right to get physician assistance to end their life? Washington v. Glucksberg (1997): Does a terminally ill patient have a right to get assistance to end their life, if assisted suicide is prohibited by state law? Ferguson v. City of Charleston (2001): Does a pregnant woman have a right to refuse being tested for drugs that could harm her unborn child? Gonzales v. Raich (2005): Does a patient have a right to use a drug allowed by state law, but illegal under federal law? Gonzales v. Oregon (2006): Does a terminally ill patient have the right to use a drug to end life, if the drug is allowed by state law for assisted suicide, but is regulated by the federal Controlled Substances Act? Return to all the Supreme Court cases.